RSPB Ramsey & Grassholm Islands Blog

Storm Kathleen was certainly impressive on the weekend. It was the roughest that Nia and I have seen it in the harbour, with 6m of swell rolling in and hitting the back of the harbour. Definitely not suitable for any boats but impressive to see none the less. The harbour during storm Kathleen on the 6th © Alys Perry. The harbour during storm Kathleen on the 6th © Alys Perry. Despite Kathleen the harbour and all the buildings remained intact. As we had another week of no boats we carried on with whatever indoor jobs we could. Chris spent his time fixing and mending some of the gates around the farm buildings as well as building new raised beds in the newly rabbit fenced vegetable patch. Nia and I carried on cleaning and re organising the workshop, finishing various admin jobs, cleaning and painting the bungalow and ordering more nice stock for the island shop. Sylvie and Kelpie enjoying some much needed grain after the storm © Alys Perry. The chickens didn't mind the storm and have

It’s been another week of turbulent weather and it looks like we are in for more this weekend with 40knts of wind and 5.8m swells forecast to come in from the South, safe to say it is time to batten down the hatches! Chris managed to get this incredible photo of a rainbow over the Ramsey farmhouse in between rain showers on the 27th. It's not often you get views like this on Ramsey!  © Chris Jones. We did manage to get our first visitor boat of the season on the 1 st.  It was great to welcome visitors back to the Island for another season and good for me & Nia to get back into the swing of the welcome talks and managing boats. Sadly we aren't due another boat for a while but thank you to Thousand Islands for making the first land of the season a success.  The Gower Ranger leaving with visitors on the 1st © Alys Perry. The past week has been taken up by clearing and tidying the workshop, surveying one of the rare water plants on the island (the Three-lobed Water Crowfoot

Sadly it's been another week of fairly rough weather and it looks like the same for the rest of the week with some big swells coming in. So our first landing of the year will most likely be delayed by at least a week! However, in between the rain showers we have been treated to some glimpses of sunshine and the odd double rainbow or two. View looking South from Carn Llundain © Alys Perry. Rainbow over St Davids Head  © Alys Perry. Both ends of the double rainbow © Alys Perry. Very boggy and flooded fields much like most of the Island right now © Alys Perry.  This week saw the arrival of 4 new Ramsey residents... the chickens. Our beloved elderly Island chicken Sylvie who came off with us at the end of the season has now returned with 3 new friends. Sylvie spent the winter at Nia's family farm quarantining with the other hens so we thought it was about time she had some company. So welcome Kelpie, Wasabi, and Chee Chee to Ramsey! The chickens safely stowed in their crate ready t